After I threaten them with violence and check my e-mail, I actually get to start cleaning up the messes that are left for me. Usually a number of late ads, or wondering why *one of our richer advertisers* ads printed so horribly. I usually have to say something along the lines of, “Well, they wanted that circus of dark colors sprayed onto toilet paper, so that’s what we did”. Note that I don’t say those exact words to the customer, of course..

I hop on our forums to be a heavy-handed Nazi/Republican dictator (doesn’t matter how many times I profess I’m Libertarian), deal with any crapping on the carpet there, and move on to some actual productive work for our upcoming pubs and paper. This can consist of cover designs, advertising design, typographical themes, or layout. I’ll also intermingle some web work when I can, and catch up with my fellow artists on how their kids are doing (I’m one of the few employees without a kid, and the 2nd youngest day employee at the paper).

Day moves on, I do the classifieds layout, print proofs of tomorrow’s pages and whatever else is printing that night, and so forth. Sometimes I finish at 6 PM, sometimes I don’t finish until 1 AM (much like one Thanksgiving I encountered.. Needless to say, I canceled my thanksgiving plans). I usually chat with the press crew for a bit about how the paper printed, how the sales reps whined, and then warn them about what ads are going to be a real pain to get aligned and color-matched.

After I’m done at THAT office, usually I run home, grab my laptop, and head down to the local (as in NOT Starbucks) coffee shop to do my independent design work, composing (as in music), quick photo proofing, web coding, whatever. If I’ve learned one thing, its that if you can avoid doing the bulk of your self-employed work at home, you will be much better for it.

Sometimes I’ll grab my camera after work and meet up with a model for a new piece/photo shoot, grab my guitar and play the role of the busker outside and talk up my new blues album coming in the next year, record some vocals for the industrial album coming up, sit at my desktop and do some design work in Illustrator, or meet up with a local who seeks advise on where to go with their web front.

I keep busy.

After I threaten them with violence and check my e-mail, I actually get to start cleaning up the messes that are left for me. Usually a number of late ads, or wondering why *one of our richer advertisers* ads printed so horribly. I usually have to say something along the lines of, “Well, they wanted that circus of dark colors sprayed onto toilet paper, so that’s what we did”. Note that I don’t say those exact words to the customer, of course..

I hop on our forums to be a heavy-handed Nazi/Republican dictator (doesn’t matter how many times I profess I’m Libertarian), deal with any crapping on the carpet there, and move on to some actual productive work for our upcoming pubs and paper. This can consist of cover designs, advertising design, typographical themes, or layout. I’ll also intermingle some web work when I can, and catch up with my fellow artists on how their kids are doing (I’m one of the few employees without a kid, and the 2nd youngest day employee at the paper).

Day moves on, I do the classifieds layout, print proofs of tomorrow’s pages and whatever else is printing that night, and so forth. Sometimes I finish at 6 PM, sometimes I don’t finish until 1 AM (much like one Thanksgiving I encountered.. Needless to say, I canceled my thanksgiving plans). I usually chat with the press crew for a bit about how the paper printed, how the sales reps whined, and then warn them about what ads are going to be a real pain to get aligned and color-matched.

After I’m done at THAT office, usually I run home, grab my laptop, and head down to the local (as in NOT Starbucks) coffee shop to do my independent design work, composing (as in music), quick photo proofing, web coding, whatever. If I’ve learned one thing, its that if you can avoid doing the bulk of your self-employed work at home, you will be much better for it.

Sometimes I’ll grab my camera after work and meet up with a model for a new piece/photo shoot, grab my guitar and play the role of the busker outside and talk up my new blues album coming in the next year, record some vocals for the industrial album coming up, sit at my desktop and do some design work in Illustrator, or meet up with a local who seeks advise on where to go with their web front.

I keep busy.